Okay, before I start this, let me take a moment to break a few hearts: this won't be a funny story.(dun dun dun!!!!). So those of you that have been on the nairaland literature board long enough would know this isn't my first foray outside writing funny short stories. I once had a series I (unfortunately) never completed (not sure if I even went halfway with the plot I had in my head). Anyways, that was a long time ago, and I've lost THAT plot. This new series I'm starting now will be published twice every week at exactly 11:11 am on Mondays and 11:11 pm on Fridays on my blog before being posted here as well. I sincerely hope you guys enjoy it and I really, really, sibcerely, to-the-very-depths-of-my-heart hope I won't ababdon this one as well. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you (dun dun dunnnn!!!!!!!) 11:11

11:11

Tyler glanced at the large clock that hung over the doorway to the security post. Forty-one minutes since his shift started. And he had spent at least thirty minutes of that time going through the rooms and exhibition halls to make sure nothing was amiss. It was a daily ritual, performed with the regularity of someone who had been at the same job for over a year. He would resume at 10:30 pm, spend the next thirty minutes locking up after the three guards he took over from, checking around the museum to make sure everything was in place before settling in at his desk in the security post by 11. For the next hour, he would keep an eye on the CCTV monitors. After which he would take a quick walk through the museum that usually took him less than fifteen minutes if the past hour had turned up nothing unusual. Then it was back to the desk for a nap that lasted at least till an hour before his shift was due to end.

Initially, he felt guilty about sleeping on the job. After all, he was supposed to stay awake to watch the CCTV monitors whenever he wasn’t patrolling the museum perimeter. But in over a year being the security guard working the night shift at the Central Samtep Museum, he had rarely ever encountered anything that warranted a second check. The only two times he had thought he had seen shadows move while watching the CCTV monitors, they had turned out to be a stray cat that had somehow gotten into the museum building. After those two occasions, he had started taking short naps. Then longer naps. Then naps that lasted almost as long as his shift.

The guilt had since left him. It was a boring job, being the only security guard working the night shift. At first the fascination of the things he was keeping watch over and the thought that they were probably all priceless artifacts kept him wide awake and dutiful. But that fascination had since worn off what with seeing them every day except weekends when he was off duty. And then he had learnt that most of the artworks were basically not worth stealing. Whenever the museum was displaying any important or valuable work, it would never be kept on the museum premises at night. And even then, two other guards would be added to his shift to deter any intending robbers. Not that the museum regularly displayed important artifacts. That had happened only once in all the time he had worked here, and it wasn’t even the type of artefact anybody would go through the bother of robbing the museum for.

He glanced at the clock again.

11:11.

By this time usually, he would be playing games on his phone while casting occasional glances at the CCTV monitors but since he had returned to the security post after his routine check, his eyes had been riveted on the CCTV monitors – at one display in particular, for reasons he couldn’t explain. He had only broken his gaze to glance at the clock. That was also inexplicable. He rarely checked the time while on his shift – at least not till he had woken from his shift long nap. But twice he had glanced at the clock and taken note of the time, like he was expecting something.

Like he was waiting for something. He glanced at the clock a third time.

11:11

A minor chill descended on him. He certainly wasn’t waiting for anyone or anything. And nothing had seemed out of place when he did his routine checks. Probably there was something he had subconsciously noticed but hadn’t checked out. It occasionally happened but had never disturbed him this much before.

He pushed his chair back, grabbed a flashlight and stepped out of the security post.

He scanned the museum front yard that lay on his left, running the beam of the flashlight along the length of the short fence and the main gates which he had locked after the curator left. Nothing amiss. He walked the short distance that separated the security post from the entrance to the main building, keeping the beam of the torch trained on the large, solid-looking wooden door that had first been a pain to open and shut but he had since gotten used to, like he was expecting someone to burst forth from within.

Or something.

He made it to the door without anything emerging to surprise him. Still, he felt a sense of unease. The last time he had felt this uneasy was the first time he had worked the night shift alone. Since then he had gotten used to the eerie silence that permeated the isolated museum block, even coming to enjoy. But now he wished there were people milling around like during the day.

He put the key in the lock and turned it. There was a small click and it turned. Then another click that told him the door was now open. He pushed the right door inward slowly with his right hand, his left hand pointing the torch into the atrium within. The door creaked slightly as it opened till it was open all the way in and Tyler stood in the doorway and flashed the beam of the torch around the circular atrium. Everything was as he had last seen it. The pair of marble lions that flanked the stairs seemed to glare directly at him from where he stood. He had found it unsettling in his early days and always looked up the stairs whenever he stepped into the atrium from outside instead of at them. Since then though, he had found their familiar gaze normal. Friendly, even; and had named them Jules and Abe.

Tonight however, the menacing quality in their stare seemed to have returned. Tyler averted his, choosing to look instead at the two hundred years old grandfather clock that stood at the very center of the atrium where it, apparently, still kept the correct time – with occasional winding. The sound of each tick echoed around the atrium, breaking the silence each second. Tyler wasn’t sure if it was the ticking that heightened his apprehensions or the gaze of the lions he knew was still trained at him where he stood in the doorway.

Or the fact that when the beam of the torch hit the face of the clock, a now familiar time was thrown back at him.

It was still 11:11.

So that's the first installment. To keep up with all the minisodes, you can follow this link: http://theopenlibrary.upbuzzed.com/tag/1111/ . And for those who might be interested, I'll also be writing a Harry Potter fan fiction series soon, hehehe. Keep an eye out for that, people!